Last week Easwaran shared how Granny used a stolen mango in his village school days to teach him about sakshi, one of the Thousand Names of Sri Krishna meaning “the internal witness.”
This week as we read pages 111–116 to finish his essay with that same title in Climbing the Blue Mountain,* he narrates how Granny renewed the lesson when he was in high school by questioning him about rumors of his impoliteness to a neighbor’s sister. “What does it matter what his sister says?” Easwaran replies.
“‘What about yourself?’ she would ask. ‘Don’t you want the respect of yourself?’
‘Of course, Granny.’
‘Well, then,’ she would say, ‘you have to earn it.’”
The security that comes from gaining the respect of our own Self, Easwaran says, “cannot be shaken by anything on earth.”
Is there a relationship in your life that you wish you could improve? Read this article for tips from Easwaran. Try applying those tips, even if you can’t apply them directly to this particular relationship.
Let’s keep looking for ways to deepen our exercises for putting others first, for example by practicing more consistently or via a bit of extra effort or preparation. Here’s this week’s challenge:
Easwaran writes, “…whenever I see somebody changing herself to be kinder or more selfless, my heart leaps in delight.” Can you take the opportunity to make Easwaran’s heart leap by changing something small this week? Use the comments below to let us know how so we can leap too!
For spiritual entertainment, here is Easwaran reading the passage “The Wonderful Effect of Divine Love” from Thomas á Kempis.
* For those using electronic versions of Climbing the Blue Mountain with different page numbering: this week’s reading is the second half of the chapter “The Internal Witness,” beginning with “Detachment is important….”